Rocky Point - Los Palomas Triathlon

I don't think there's an 'e' on the end of Rocky Point. I asked a bunch of people that exact question on Sunday.


It was really nice.  I wish I'd have taken some pics.

Race was scheduled for 9:00 am. Olympic distance 1,000 m swim, 24 mile ride, 6.2 mile run.

They close transition at 8:45 which means you have to be ready to swim at that point. The first wave (Men under 40 doing the olympic distance) go first. We started about 9:05 am. Just like that little race I did the other day right up until race time everybody is laughing and joking and basically having a good time. At IM people look like they are about to be lead to the gas chamber an hour before the race.

We ran into the water about 25 to 50 yards then we started swimming. I have a real weird problem. Every single time I've been in an open water swim I have felt a great deal of panic at the start. I feel like I need to quit and turn around or stop and get pulled out of the water. I manage to supress it every time and after 10 - 15 minutes I get over it but there's always that feeling at the begining. Right after that I think I am exhausted and I feel the need to tread water. Again, I usually overcome this and push on until eventually I just start swimming.

This time was no different. I think I could have done better but I was so unsure of myself. The night before everyone that I was with assured me the water would be like glass at the start; unless it was like last year! When we got there the water was indeed calm but as we waited for th horn to blow the tide rolled in and with it the waves. It wasn't bad but it certainly wasn't glass.

Don, the guy who organized the whole trip was with me at the begining but he was able to keep swimming when I decided to start treading water. He got a small lead on me and extended it to about 3 mintues at the end. Ultimately he finished a minute or so behind me in the run but ran faster by that same amount. To that he was a minute faster in each transition so he finished a little over 5 minutes before me.

The bike was fun. I wish I had been in better shape for that. I'll make a note of that for next year. I would have like to have just hammered though the entire 24 miles but I really took it easy except for the one short hill. I went up that pretty hard but besides that I focused on keeping my HR low.

The run was very nice. I managed to hold about an 8 minute/mile pace and I wasn't in much discomfort at all. I think I could have gone much faster. I held back at the begining and at the end I thought maybe I hadn't eaten enough in the morning.

Fixed for next time would include: 1. Eating a big breakfast. 2. Being more prepared for the swim. 3. Not being afraid of going faster on the bike. 4. Knowing the run course better, there were lots of steep hills.

This race knows how to finish! They had a slip 'n' slide at the end. A lot of people complained that their legs hurt too much to jump on to it. That's a clue that I didn't go nearly hard enough. They had all the free Corona and tequilla you could drink available afterwards (another reason to do this race) and it was just generally a great time. Got drunk in a bar that night and did my best to offend the relay team from The Tilted Kilt bar.

Next morning I felt OK, I had tried to drink one water for each beer all night. I was actually thinking that a run would feel good when I saw Don putting his shoes on. We did 4 miles in a little over 35 minutes. That's faster than I wanted to do but with an 8 mile hilly run in SF this weekend it couldn't hurt. Drove back that morning.

That's my first trip to Rocky Point. I must be the only person to graduate from ASU without ever having been there. I'd go back in a second!